Novell's Linux Business Takes a Seat At the Grown-Up Table

CNet is reporting that while Novell still has a long way to go before they start making Red Hat nervous, they have at least gotten a seat at the grown-up table. Reporting 31% year-over-year growth in their Linux business, Novell attributes very little of this success to their Microsoft partnership, looking to their Redmond connection mainly for interoperability work. "Novell's core Linux business is growing. By 'core,' I mean that our non-Microsoft- related Linux business is growing. These are Suse Linux Enterprise Server subscriptions sold directly by the Novell sales force or by our channel partners, without any Microsoft certificates or Microsoft salespeople involved. However, the important thing is that our total revenue picture for Suse Linux Enterprise is growing, as our customers increasingly don't distinguish. As we've said before, Microsoft offers an alternate avenue for purchasing subscriptions but we are focused on growth of the whole category."

Frosty Posts

[Anarke_Incarnate]

Go Novell. Competition = good

more than a third of a billion

[iggymanz]

so that $367 million Microsoft paid Novell in 2007 alone had nothing to do with profitablity and growth. glad to hear it

Re:more than a third of a billion

[Anarke_Incarnate]

Having worked with Red Hat and Novell as well as HP, Sun and IBM on *NIX, I have to give Novell credit on their support. They tend to go the extra mile and I even really like their documentation better than Red Hat's. Red Hat's kickstart has fewer issues than AutoYaSt, but YaST as a tool to manage servers, plus Novell's Zenworks Linux Management is awesome in capabilities. It seems to just be easier to make things happen on SUSE for me.

But, now at my current job, it is all RHEL and HPUX........with a few older sun boxen tossed into the mix.

dislike this company

[Anonymous Coward]

I will never purchase anything from novell. ever. they have signed agreements that microsoft intends to leverage to subvert the open source community. youd be blind not to see this and i want no part.

Is this a good thing?

[walterbyrd]

Is this good news? Are novell sales up, in part, due to their dirty-deal with msft?

I could argue that apple and sun also benefited from their deals with msft.

But, long term, although the individual deals are often beneficial, at least in the short term; the long term effects of these deals is to further entrench msft standards.

JMHO.

Re:dislike this company

[Anonymous Coward]

Fine - dislike the company, but you really need to get away from the FUD and the fear of microsoft and realize that they are doing nothing of the sort (subverting the open source community). you can hate mono, hate gnome, hate evolution, hate kde, you can hate opensuse/suse linux, whatever, but you can't say that novell hasn't done a lot for the community -- they've donated TONS of code (opened up all of SUSE Linux, app armor, yast, hula, etc. and have done tons to go after folks who try to hurt the community and/or open source (gifting patents to OIN, going after SCO, etc.).

stop pushing FUD and realize that they, just like other companies are in the business of making money and despite that, they continue to help the community. I'm not saying that I necessarily love their MS agreements either, but I don't think they're going to let MS poison open source and/or hurt the community...

appreciate your comments, but honestly am a bit sick of some of the novell bashing, most of which is based more on fear than on reality.

Re:dislike this company

[walterbyrd]

> Microsoft wants to hedge bets on many levels and getting any stream of income from open source would be good for them.

I don't think that is what the deal is about. Msft's business model does not work unless msft can control the standard. Msft wants linux to be legally encumbered. Msft is getting Novell to agree that all other version of linux are violating msft patents. This is supposed to create one legal version of Linux, and all the rest are illegal. Why do you think msft is sponsoring the Acacia lawsuit against Redhat?

Right now, there is no way msft can kill off linux in the same manner that msft has killed off msft's proprietary competitors. But, if there is only one linux, and this linux is commercial product, then it becomes much easier for msft to kill off, or at least contain the problem.

Re:dislike this company

[walterbyrd]

Novell execs do what novell execs think is in their own best interest. Sometimes that means helping Linux/foss, other times not. Novell execs may presently wants to linux to succeed - but only for novell, not for everybody. Bottom line, novell execs are looking at their own bottom line - whether that helps, or hurts, linux is inconsequential. Novell execs are not in business for the sake of any kind of idealism.

Whatever criticisms people have against msft, you have to give msft credit for being strategic. Right now, msft is teaming with novell to defeat redhat via msft's patent scam. Once redhat has been defeated, msft can turn their attention to other linux distributors, including novell. Let me remind you, msft has a long history of turning against their business partners.

Re:Frosty Posts

[mrsteveman1]

That last point is sort of irrelevant, its open source.

If the NSA wants to develop security frameworks they obviously can, and the main kernel devs seem happy to incorporate their work into the kernel.

If you have some reason to not trust SELinux, much as i hate it, do tell.

Explain that again.

[khasim]

The indemnification is basically MS' promise to not go after Novell's customers.

So Novell DID agree that there was SOMETHING Microsoft could sue over.

I agree they sold them "magic beans" but I have to assume A customer or customers wanted this.

Explain that one again. It makes no sense to me.

This was done under the umbrella of SCO's lawsuits, etc. Some customers probably did not want the hassle and wanted to have somebody shield them.

Red Hat didn't seem to have a problem with that.

So Novell Pays MS and Novell gets paid MORE than that BY MS.

That's what is known as "selling out".

It doesn't matter how much you get paid, you've still entered into an agreement stating that you are paying Microsoft for the property that know is included in the product that you are selling.

Re:I see it this way.

[KutuluWare]

Holy crap am I glad you aren't my legal counsel.

But, I see SUSE as the following.

A Linux system that you can buy (note not OpenSUSE) without the fear of being sued by Microsoft for the duration of the licensing agreement between the two companies.

For that reason, I would not recommend SUSE to any business at all.

I can just imagine the look on my CEO's face if our legal department sent this memo. "It is our conclusion that, by using Linux, you may be (but likely are not) taking on legal liability for patents which Microsoft may (but likely do not) have, that may be infringed (but likely are not) by Linux. Additionally, if you purchase SUSE Linux directly from Novell, you are guaranteed that Microsoft will not sue you for any such patents for at least some period of time in the future. So we strongly recommend you go with Red Hat".

Here's the part that I don't get. If by some cosmic stroke of bad luck, there is something infringing in Linux, and only SUSE Linux is indemnified, then you gain protection by using it. If, as we all know, there isn't anything infringing in Linux, then the indemnification pledge is meaningless fluff, and what the hell's the difference which distro you pick?